Seattle police chief retires after vote to trim up to 100 cops, $3 million from the force
By: MSN
Going top be quite interesting to see just how this plays out. Stay tuned.
Trump and his supporters are off topic.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Seattle police chief retires after vote to trim up to 100 cops, $3 million from the force
Hours after the Seattle City Council voted to strip about $3 million from the police department and reduce its size by up to 100 officers as part of a push to fundamentally change policing in the city, Police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement.
© David Ryder/Getty Images Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced her retirement after the city council approved cutting around $3 million from the department's budget. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)
Best, the city's first Black police chief, leaves after months of turmoil that made Seattle a focal point for national protests against police brutality and racial injustice. In a letter to Seattle police officers, the 55-year-old called the decision "difficult" but said "when it's time, it's time."
"I am confident the department will make it through these difficult times," she wrote in the letter, which the Seattle Times republished. "I look forward to seeing how this department moves forward through the process of re-envisioning public safety."
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D), who opposed the city council's police cuts, which would also have trimmed Best's pay, said she was disappointed in her decision to retire.
"I regret deeply that she concluded that the best way to serve the city and help the department was through a change in leadership," Durkan wrote in a letter to police officers.
Best is the latest high-profile police chief to leave her post amid the mass protests that have roiled the nation since George Floyd's death in Minneapolis in May, joining at least a half dozen other leaders from cities including Louisville, Portland, Ore., Nashville and Atlanta. Unlike many of those other chiefs, she wasn't forced out by her mayor or city council.
Instead, Best's retirement came after the Seattle City Council took a cue from protesters who have made defunding the police a central tenant of their movement. The council's final moves, though, were far more modest than the demands of Black Lives Matter activists to redistribute 50 percent of the police department's funds toward community programs.
Instead, the council approved proposals to reduce the force's 1,400 officers by up to 100 positions through layoffs and attrition, the Times reported, and to trim about $3 million from the force's $409 million budget for 2020. A plan to significantly cut Best's $285,000 annual salary was also scaled back.
Still, a coalition of activists and most of the council hailed the moves as a first step toward altering the nature of policing in Washington's largest city, pointing toward a resolution promising next year to shift a number of duties — including parking enforcement, 911 dispatch and emergency management — away from the police.
"It will take time to get there but we are acting with urgency today," Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda said, according to the Times.
Councilmember Kshama Sawant, the lone vote against the measure, argued that it didn't go nearly far enough in stripping money and power from the force.
"This budget fails to shift the misplaced priorities of the Democratic political establishment," she said in a statement. "It continues to hand more money over to the bloated police department than to eldercare, homeless services, and other human services, affordable housing, neighborhoods, and arts and culture combined."
Best became interim chief in 2018 and then was hired full-time, in part due to pressure from Black leaders in the city. Durkan, in her letter, credited her with reducing use of force instances and hiring a more diverse group of police officers.
But Best also faced heavy criticism over the use of tear gas and less-than-lethal munitions against protesters this summer. Last week, protesters trying to march to Best's house were stopped by her neighbors, some of whom were allegedly armed.
Durkan said she will appoint Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz as the department's new interim chief.
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What could possibly go wrong............................
Let it burn and then tell them to pound sand when they come crying to the Fed for help
That's a HUGE packet of pocket change to walk away from!
I don't think any amount of money is enough to deal with the violent leftist Brown Shirts and their Democratic enablers.
She may be walking away from a lot of salary; but she is also now safe from the never ending future lawsuits, and political & media BS to follow.
I am sure they are sorry to lose her. They are going to have a nearly impossible time finding someone to replace her for less money. Unless they go with someone very young and inexperienced willing to take whatever they give. That will work out well.
It's likely her retirement benefits are based on her salary at the time of retirement so the smart thing to do is to retire before they cut your pay.
Seattle's leaders have made some brainless foolish decisions directly causing the death of children.
I don't see the future to be any better.
I would be running from that hell hole too.
She's gettin while the gettin is good baba looey
"It continues to hand more money over to the bloated police department than to eldercare, homeless services, and other human services, affordable housing, neighborhoods, and arts and culture combined."
Criminals don't give a damn about social issues. Misguided actions like this only encourage them.
Well damn Jim, there goes 90% of your possible contributors here bud ....
Maybe we'll at least hear from those who told us that the cuts wouldn't result in less cops. That takes guts, so most likely not. It's getting crowded under the bed.
Don't hold your breath for too long Vic .....
Once the Ad hominem attack is banned most of them are cooked. They got away with it for so long! Now they want censorship.
Yup, i especially like the censorship by flagging gambit.
So sophomoric, so cowardly.
Yes it is, kind like hiding behind a mask while rioting & looting.
Yeah...the "troll gambit". I got a lot of those trying to elicit some honest answers.
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That would be the Ad hominem attack.
So, besides that and the skirting to get around the off topic slur, do you have anything meaningful to say?
Police Chief Best did the right thing.
I'm sure she didn't want to do that, but her hands were tied and her officers were left to the brutality of the mob, demonized & defenseless.
Certainly can’t blame her.
I hope they're fucking happy. They had a black female chief of police and they drove her out. Well done!
I guess what that city needs is a male white progressive chief to make it all better. Idiots.
She seemed like she was honestly trying to do the right thing for her city. She is a huge loss for them but I’m happy for her. Hopefully they don’t try to screw her over on her pension because I can see them trying to do so.
Well, I mean isn't the whole message of the BLM protests that police are specifically out to get black people? And you want to say "Have you seen the chief???"
her pension is likely un affected , one doesn't become the highest officer on a force without a number of years in service so she likely had enough years to retire , before she became chief, That and the funds that cover pensions usually are not part of the police budget but to the city budget.
her pay on the other hand would be part of the annual budget and with her retirement cut a big chunk out because when they replace her they can negotiate a lower pay scale for the next person.
Also by retiring , she saved some other person from being layed off , so instead of 100 they have to look at 99 to lose through attrition or layoffs .
retirement is attrition
it appears that she also didn't agree with the politically correct suggestion of the council to lay off out of turn to save minority jobs. so now she wont have to deal with that either.
I wouldn't be so sure. Stranger things have happened
we shall see , pensions are usually from the union , or the city , neither of which draw from the police budgets and are pretty much already negotiated .
Yeah i tend to agree but my comment really speaks to bigger possibilities. People and companies are/will be leaving Seattle in droves after this summers debacle. Thus exacerbating their already tenuous pension plan unfunded liability problem.
It could all collapse if they aren't careful and then all pension payment bets are off.
that seems to be the trending concern anyplace that has had experience with this summers tribulations , many polititians are concerned that people concidering leaving these areas will have a very adverse effect on the tax base
the other concern I have read is the fact it will be harder to get ones that could invest will likely be disinclined to invest in such areas , which is of course their prerogative , there is no laws that say one that could , have to.
Such a thing is not new. Look at Detroit. It's just a few decades ahead of cities like Seattle or Portland. Same thing will happen in those cities now imo.
It should be based on her salary during her career. If she stayed several years with the lower salary it could have negatively affected her pension. She was right to get out now for many reasons including that.